I made this deck because I wanted to play big splashy creatures and spells by cheating them out. I chose Intet, the Dreamer over Maelstrom Wanderer for a few reasons, the primary being that I wanted to make a deck with a dragon theme. The dragon theme is represented in a few different ways. First and foremost, Intet, the Dreamer herself and other big dragons are the only win-conditions. The only non-dragon creatures are Birds of Paradise, Rattleclaw Mystic, and Thassa, God of the Sea. Cards like Wildfire, Volcanic Vision, and Reforge the Soul give the deck an explosive, fire-breathing feel. Support cards like Dragonlord's Prerogative, Ugin's Insight, Deep Analysis and the Ugin version of Reality Shift also put more dragons front and center.
The deck also has a little bit of a thoughts/dreams theme represented by cards like Dream Cache, Temporal Spring, Consign to Dream, Dream Fracture, Memory Lapse, and Thought Vessel.
I think that Intet, the Dreamer is also more interesting than Maelstrom Wanderer because she allows for greater control of the spells that you exile. While Maelstrom only allows you to cast the spells when you cast him, Intet allows you to hold onto spells until you're ready to use them. This obviously makes counter spells much more potent in Intet than Maelstrom, as they won't be dead cascades.
The primary win conditions are
Commander damage:
Intet is a six power creature with evasion, which makes killing people with commander damage possible. As a standalone creature, Intet, the Dreamer takes four hits to eliminate a player with commander damage. Clout of the Dominus gives Intet shroud, haste, and increases her power by two, which allows her to deal 21 commander damage to a player in three hits instead of four. Scourge of the Throne, Seize the Day, and Atarka, World Render allow Intet to hit players multiple times in a turn. Temporal Mastery also gives an extra combat step.
I believe that Intet's ability is primarily strong because it draws cards and not because it makes spells cheaper to cast. However, being able to cast certain spells, such as Dragonstorm, for three mana is quite powerful. Casting Dragonstorm for three mana makes it possible to play other spells and build a storm count. The core of the Dragonstorm package is Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest, causing every dragon summoned to deal damage. Because both Scourge and Tempest trigger on ETB and Dragonstorm brings all creatures into the battlefield simultaneously, each trigger sees all dragons. This means that summoning three dragons, one of which is Scourge of Valkas deals three damage three times, or four damage three times if Intet is already in play.
While nine or twelve damage won't normally be enough to eliminate one opponent, much less three, counter magic can keep the dragons summoned on the battlefield and compound the damage. I cast Dragonstorm with Intet's ability and a storm count of one to summon two dragons, fetching Scourge of Valkas and Utvara Hellkite. If those dragons survive until my next turn (perhaps because of available counter magic), attacking will deal eighteen damage solely from Scourge of Valkas triggers. Twice that if Dragon Tempest is on the battlefield, and obviously even more for every additional dragon that I can attack with. Another brutal combination is Dragon Tempest, Scourge of the Throne, and Utvara Hellkite.
These two win conditions work well together in multiplayer games where I can direct Intet at an opponent who struggles to block flying creates and try to kill them with commander damage, while directing other dragons towards a second player, and direct burn from Scourge of Valkas or Dragon Tempest towards a third player.
How does it play?
I think of this deck as a tempo-based control deck that uses Intet, the Dreamer as both a win condition and a draw engine.
Most of the ramp, like Nature's Lore, Birds of Paradise, and Rattleclaw Mystic is focused on casting Intet as soon as possible. However, Gilded Lotus and Mana Reflection are more impactful and make it possible to hard cast Dragonstorm or cast Intet after she has been removed multiple times. Ideal starts either allow me to cast Intet by turn three, cast her with a haste enabler like Temur Ascendancy or Lightning Greaves out, or cast her with extra mana for counter magic to protect her.
The most obvious aspect of playing Intet, the Dreamer is to include cards like Mirri's Guile, Dream Cache, Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top which allow us to craft the top of our deck so that we can trigger Intet's ability for specific cards. This also makes running Reforge the Soul, Temporal Mastery, and Devastation Tide strong inclusions.
Because of the fast ramp and cheaper counter magic, the deck can run out its hand pretty quickly making Intet's ability to essentially draw cards (even when they are unfortunately lands) quite important.
The deck's biggest weakness is definitely early edict effects like Merciless Executioner, which are unfortunately fairly common.
Some of my favorite interactions are:
Leyline of Anticipation makes it possible to use cards cast on an opponent's turn towards the storm counter for Dragonstorm, to draw cards of an opponent's attack with Knollspine Dragon, or to respond to an opponent's tutor with Temporal Spring.
Triggering Intet multiple times in a turn off of double strike from Atarka, World Render (her ability triggers on combat damage) or from multiple combat steps.
Using Volcanic Vision on Dragonstorm to deal nine damage to my opponent's creatures.
Casting Wildfire with Intet on board and leaving enough mana to trigger her ability.
And using Intet, the Dreamer's ability! It's incredibly satisfying to flip cards off the top of the deck. Flipping cards like Mana Reflection or DragonFire by turn four is wild! I also love accidentally exiling lands with Intet, the Dreamer and then pretending that they're counter-spells I'm holding in exile to use at a key moment.
